Warning light arrangements, sometimes referenced as emergency light, warning light or light signal systems, are widely used on a variety of types of vehicles. In a typical application, a warning light system is positioned on the roof of a vehicle such as a police vehicle or similar vehicle. In general, a characteristic of such warning light systems is that they provide light visible at least from perspectives facing toward the front and toward the rear of the vehicle. The systems are generally configured to provide a variety of selected light displays often involving “flashing” or “rotating” lights of various colors, for example selected from red, amber (yellow), blue and white.
In some arrangements, individual lights are aligned in a direction generally perpendicular to an axis of forward movement of the vehicle, so that maximum light visibility (of the light arrangement) is primarily from perspectives directly in front of the vehicle and/or directly behind the vehicle. Improvements in such arrangements have been developed (as for example described in U.S. Pat. Re 36,245 (of U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,266), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,422,673 and 6,100,791, incorporated herein by reference) to provide a significant visibility off axis; for example from locations to the front and off to a side of the vehicle, such as might be the perspective of a person driving toward (or entering) an intersection toward which the emergency vehicle is also approaching from a cross street.
Many such warning lights systems have typically used halogen lights. With halogen light arrangements, color variation is often provided by transmitting light from the halogen light source through a colored optic or lens. With such an arrangement, luminous efficiency is lessened by the coloring, since the cover lens operates as a filter for the light.
In recent years, LED systems (light emitting diode systems) have become desirable for use in generating light, as opposed to halogen lights, in a variety of circumstances. It has been desired to develop warning light arrangements for use by mounting on vehicles, typically vehicle roofs, which provide for a variety of options of light effects and which can use LED arrangements for light generation. Herein, some advantageous arrangements, features, components and techniques are described.